Thoughts on Uncharted 1-3

Over the past couple of weeks I rushed through the single-player campaign of the Uncharted series. As someone who owned a xbox 360 last gen this was one series I missed, and now I know exactly how much I’ve been missing.

This series has a clear theme / identity: it is a console action adventure “tentpole”  equivalent to the Indiana Jones movie franchise (with some heavy influence from The Da Vinci Code). Each game follows the same basic premise: the protagonists are on the trail of an ancient lost treasure/myth (El Dorado, Shangri-la, and the lost city of Atlantis for each game respectively) competing against some antagonists, and hops from location to location in an amazing race (and always ends up with no treasure – these myths are forgotten for a reason).

Its lead Nathan Drake is a college athlete/frat-boy version of Indiana Jones, with a comical mix of these stereotypes (he can be very scholarly and knows his latin when decoding ancient riddles, but he’s also a hot-head who rarely plans ahead and relies on improvisation to get himself out of a bind; he’s also the most athletic rock-climber ever).

Drake’s supported by a handful of characters that at first glance fall into clear stereotypes as well: Sully is the father figure/dirty old thief, Elena is the blonde romantic interest, Charlie Cutter is basically Jason Statham, and so on. The series is light-hearted in tone (this is not The Last of Us, also by Naughty Dog), and character development is generally minimal. For example, most of the Drake – Elena relationship happened “off-screen”: between game 1 & 2 they were dating but split up; between game 2 & 3 they got married but separated1.

However the series is surprisingly effective at making you care about those “one-dimensional” stereotypes, through the strength of its voice acting (a superb cast) and the sharp dialogues – there’s a number of running jokes that the characters play on each other and the game plays on the characters, for example:

  • Sully, the lowly thief he is, likes his hookers, and has a tendency to utter lines that can be interpreted in a dirty way by others
  • In the setup to a action set-piece, one of the characters would often say “let’s do this quietly”, usually directed at Drake (the player-character). It almost always never is done quietly (even if the player went full stealth, there would be an explosion sometimes to progress the scene) 2
  • Similarly in the lead-up to a set-piece, one of the characters would say “listen guys, I’ve got a plan”, suffice to say it almost always does not play out like the plan

Another major strength of the series is its cinematic flair. Uncharted is not shy to borrow established cinematography techniques from movies:

  • There are some great scenes where the camera either starts from a vista shot and pans/zooms all the way in to a detail where the character is, or vice versa. Superb at establishing the grandiose space and set design
  • There are lots of action shots with Drake facing the camera, running, with a chain of explosions chasing him. A typical movie cliché that’s somewhat fun to play through (and not just watch), but can be annoying if you can’t get it right the first few times (usually because the camera angle hinders you from predicting moves)
  • Especially in game 3, there is a beautiful 15-minute desert scene that acts as a buffer between two action set-pieces. It’s light on interaction (just walking) but heavy on scenery and character. This was one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever played, and is a fantastic case study of the intersection between films and video games

The cinematic flair goes hand in hand with another major strength – the series’ breathtaking set pieces. The series can certainly be a prime example of one reason why people play video-games: to experience life differently and travel to places you may otherwise be unable to. There was obviously immense care and attention paid to the environment and it remains a huge achievement.

Lastly, to talk briefly about the actual gameplay: the series is a blend of 3d platforming (the Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time type) with some minor puzzles, and 3rd-person shooter (with minor melee combat). For the shooter piece, I felt it was run-of-the-mill, but the series showed notable improvement (game 1 felt very dated in this regard, whereas 2/3 aged well and are still fun today). The platforming is mundane as well, but fits snugly with the series’ set-pieces and therefore feels fun.

  1. BTW this was done using simple but effective dialogues, for example a couple of lines commenting on Elena’s ring in game 3
  2. At first I thought this was a gameplay issue – the dialogue doesn’t fit the moment-to-moment gameplay needs, so the “quiet” part isn’t enforced, but the frequency at which this occurred made me feel it was or became intentional.

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